Dan Melchior's Broke Revue

Dan Melchior's voice is unique. He's got the terse, declarative quality of Mark E. Smith; his rhythm and affectations echo occasional collaborator Billy Childish. And the combination is fantastic. You can hear how dynamic he is on the soulful, melodic howl of "Gatecrasher" or in the hip-hop-like "Out of the Swamp." And his lyrics are all substance, offering up too-true observations such as "Don't you ever wonder what it might be like/without the car alarms wailing in the dead of night/and the people bullshitting on the left and right/into those little telephones that they hold so tight?" The Broke Revue borrow heavily from '60s beats and melodies, though one can't deny a certain distinctly modern lo-fi blues-punkness. Rather than relying on speed for intensity, however, they prefer a tempered, subtly aggressive, psychedelic drone—ŗ la the Stooges, Spacemen 3 or even bluesmen such as Junior Kimbrough. There are exceptions, of course: "Beast of the Field," which has an acoustic Blind-Lemon-Jefferson back-porch blues quality, or "You're My Wife," which swaggers like a Willie Dixon tune played by Poison 13. Melchior's unusual talent is all over this; it's an album that will absolutely leave listeners humming hook after hook. And better: it's incontrovertible (and very welcome) proof that not all NYC bands are biting PIL and Gang of Four. (Brett Schultz)